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Google Glass 2.0, and Other News You May Have Missed

You’ve probably been engulfed in the Apple Watch media maelstrom. Wondering what else happened in tech this weekend? Like how the new Google Glass will be made by a fancy Italian eyewear brand? We’ve got you covered with BitStream, our cheat sheet for tech news and rumors that might’ve slipped past your radar. Rumors Is…

Researchers Can Create Scents that Smell Like Departed Loved Ones

We all have a smell—one that those closest to us grow to love (or at least tolerate). Now, a team of researchers is able to recreate the natural aroma of loved ones once they’ve passed away, allowing them to live on. In our noses. The Guardian reports that Katia Apalategui’s mother struggled to get over…

How the Tea Bag Was Invented

Legend says that brewing tea dates back to around 2737 BC, when tea leaves fell into water being boiled for Emperor Shennong of China. There does not appear to be any hard evidence of tea being discovered this way, but evidence we do have suggests that brewing tea did indeed likely start in China, first…

Why the Tiniest of Fossils Mean Big Things to Scientists

The latest video in the American Museum of Natural History’s “Shelf Life” explores foraminifera, tiny sea creatures also called “forams.” Read more about forams and ammonites, which forams were originally confused for, at AMNH’s website.

Watch an Embryo Turn Itself Inside Out

If you’ve ever felt like your life’s turned on its head, be thankful that you’re not this little embryo—which turns itself inside out. This is the first footage ever captured of a living algal embryo turning itself inside out. First it looks like a sphere, then sucks itself up and inside out to resemble a…

Five Deadly Parasites That Have Crossed the Globe

Global events such as climate change and an international trade have caused a number of dangerous parasites to emerge in countries where they haven’t been found before. The parasites, which can invade and damage vital body organs such as the brain, range from one-celled organisms to relatively large tape worms. Here are five that, though…

Last week, Robert Downey Jr. made an appearance at a charity screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron. See the video here.

This Tiny Robot Can Pull Weights 2,000 Times Heavier Than It

Scientists from Stanford have developed a series of super-small, super strong robots—including this one, that can haul up to 52 pounds, despite weighing less than half an ounce. That’s like you pulling a blue whale. New Scientist reports that the Stanford lab has been busy building a series of super-strong robots, all of which are…

An Art Project Turns Cracks in Cities Into Geodes

Artist Paige Smith (AKA “A Common Name”) started Urban Geodes by filling cracks in downtown Los Angeles with these geodesic shapes. They’re made from paper and spray paint or resin. The project has since spread to other cities and countries, and a map of the installations can be seen at the A Common Name website,…

SpaceX Prepares Falcon 9 For Launch—and Reminds Us How Big Rockets Are

This picture shows SpaceX preparing its Falcon 9 rocket for launch at Cape Canaveral later today. If all goes well—and currently there’s a 60 percent chance of favorable weather—the launch will take place during a 90-minute window which starts at 6:14 p.m. EDT. The picture’s also a nice reminder of the sense of scale of…

On Outlander, Jamie Can’t Go Home Again

In “Lallybroch,” we met Jamie’s sister, Jenny, and returned to his childhood home. Jenny is amazing. Jamie is less great. While Claire didn’t return home last week, Jamie did this week. And I don’t think it went exactly as he dreamed it would. Spoilers… Plotwise, it was a relatively light week: Jamie takes Claire to…

Watch The Birth Of A 17-Mile Iceberg

Most iceberg-forming videos show the violence of glaciers calving, the groaning as thousands of tonnes of ice tip into the sea. But this slow sequence of photos from NASA’s satellites reveal a far more stately process. The berg appears to have fractured from West Antarctica’s Getz Ice Shelf and moved out into in the Amundsen…

Buying Stuff With Smartwatches Is Dumb: Accidental Xbox Edition

There is a limited number of things that smartwatches are good for. As this tech blogger’s accidental purchase of an Xbox One shows, browsing Amazon is not one of those things. During a Periscope demo of the Apple Watch (now there’s a sentence I never thought I would type), CNET writer Scott Stein used the…

Nokia Says It Really Doesn’t Want To Make Smartphones Again

A report last week stated that Nokia was planning to return to the smartphone game when its non-compete with Microsoft ended on December 31st, 2015. But a statement released today by Nokia flat-out denies the report, describing it as false and inaccurate. The statement is blunt, and to the point: Nokia notes recent news reports…

The Trailer For The Descendants Gives Us Glorious Villain Children 

The first trailer for the Disney Channel Original Movie The Descendants has hit, and it looks… it looks exactly like we thought it was going to look. I don’t even know. It’s like High School Musical and Sky High had a child. And that child shops exclusively at Hot Topic. That said, you’ll have to…

Apple Bans Fart Apps, All Fun And Joy From Apple Watch

Smartwatches and fart apps are basically a match made in heaven: a remotely-triggered Whoopee cushion, basically. But Apple disagrees: putrid, fart-based comedy goes against the sophisticated, elegant image it’s promoting for The Watch. Apple’s dislike for fart apps was disclosed through its rejection of the (creatively named) Fart Watch app, which did exactly what it…

The Rubik’s Cube World Record Now Stands At 5.253 Seconds

World-record Rubik’s cube solving happens obscenely quickly, but you can barely even count the moves in Collin Burns’s record-setting 5.253-second run. Burns was taking part in the final round of a competition in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he posted the time. Although the record hasn’t been updated yet on the website of the World Cube…

Gaze Upon The Fuzzy Scrawn Of An Elusive Baby Pigeon

City dwellers encounter pigeons every day. But have you noticed that you never see a baby? One big reason: they stay in the nest until they’re adult-sized, which is why pretty much the only people who see pigeon babies are those who raise them, or know somebody who does — like the person who snapped…

Video shows the avalanche that hit Everest Base Camp after earthquake

Terrifying. German climber Jost Kobusch was at Everest Base Camp as the earthquake that devastated Nepal, hit Everest too. You can see the people realize the ground was shaking and then immediately get hit by a horrific avalanche right after. So sad. It’s so scary that the time to process the earthquake had hit and…

These Stunning Geometric Patterns Were Created From Google Earth Images

Satellite images of our world are incredible on their own. But artist Federico Winer has taken aerial photography to a new level by portraying planet Earth as a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of geometric patterns and colors. Winer’s new series, “Ultradistancia,” is a collection of natural and man-made landscapes that were captured not by traveling the world,…